A Survey Study on Farmers’ Attitude Regarding Strawberry Cultivation
A Survey Study on Farmers’ Attitude Regarding Strawberry
Cultivation
Tanushree Mondal
1*
and Debashish Das
2
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University,
Dhaka, Bangladesh
2
Scientific Officer, Soil Research and Development Institute, Farmgate, Dhaka, Bangladesh
The major objective of this study was to explore the attitude and determine the contribution of the
selected characteristics of the farmers on their attitude regarding strawberry cultivation. The
selected characteristics were age, level of education, farm size, strawberry cultivation area,
annual family income, income from strawberry cultivation, training exposure, extension contact,
strawberry cultivation experience, problem faced in strawberry cultivation, knowledge and
practice on strawberry cultivation. Data were collected from 113 farmers from two villages
(Shahapur and Mirkamari) of Charghat Upazila under Rajshahi District by using a pretested
interview schedule. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, range and
percentage were used to describe the variables under consideration. Stepwise multiple
regressions were used to examine the contribution of the selected characteristics of the farmers
on their attitude regarding strawberry cultivation using SPSS software. Overwhelming 97.3% of
the respondents had a low to high favorable attitude towards strawberry cultivation. Where, 51.3%
farmers had a medium favorable attitude, 40.7% had a low favorable attitude and 5.3% farmers
had a high favorable attitude. Stepwise multiple regressions exposed that knowledge on
strawberry cultivation, Problem faced in strawberry cultivation, Strawberry cultivation experience,
age, level of education and income from strawberry cultivation of the strawberry farmers had
significant contribution on their attitude towards strawberry cultivation and which contribute
63.4% of the total variation. The percentages of favorable attitudes among the farmers are
satisfactory but the study recommended that proper support of extension agents should be given
in each step of strawberry cultivation, postharvest management and marketing period to keep up
the positive attitude of the farmers.
Keywords: Attitude, Descriptive statistics, Farmer, Interview schedule, Pretest, Strawberry, Stepwise Multiple
Regression
INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh is mainly an agro-based country and
agriculture plays a vital role for ensuring food security,
employment generation, poverty alleviation, raising
standard of living and increasing export earnings. Many
developing countries like Bangladesh benefited from the
green revolution in cereal production in the past but were
not able to substantially reduce poverty and malnutrition.
Fruits and Vegetables production can help farmers to
generate income which eventually alleviate poverty and
reduce malnutrition (DAE, 1999). Strawberry, a nutritious
and delicious exotic fruit has recently been adapted in
Bangladesh and it has already drawn an attention of the
Government, farmers as well as some businessmen.
Strawberry is a new fruit crop and its cultivation technique
is fairly new in Bangladesh whereas cultivation area is
increasing day by day.
Commercial production of strawberries is possible in a
wide climatic range including subtropical areas like
Bangladesh (Barney,1999). Although strawberry normally
produced in countries having cold weather particularly in
*Corresponding Author: Tanushree Mondal; Assistant
Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and
Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural
University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Email: tanushree09sau@gmail.com
Co-Author Email: debashish221@gmail.com
Research Article
Vol. 6(2), pp. 350-355, June, 2020. © www.premierpublishers.org. ISSN: 2167-0432
International Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension